That made No. 99, the best player in hockey history, also the highest-salaried player in the game. That $3 million in ’88 would have the buying power of $6.032 million today, which sadly wouldn’t put Gretzky in the top 50 salaried NHLers. Chicago goalie Corey Crawford is No. 50 today at $6.5 million.

Gretzky made $42.623 million during his storied career, which puts him 124th on the all-time money list. Nobody begrudges what guys get in negotiations, but here’s a list of guys who’ve made more money courtesy of the good folks at capgeek.com (where would we be without them?)

Ziggy Palffy, $42.875 million

Olie Kolzig, $43.240 million

Scott Hartnell, $43.357 million

Eric Brewer, $44.210 million

Mathieu Schneider, $44.901 million

Lubomir Visnovsky, $45.772 million

Shawn Horcoff, $47.275 million

Jay Bouwmeester, $50.940 million

Martin Havlat, $52.285 million

Nikolai Khabibulin, $60.193 million

Khabibulin has made more than the second-winningest-goalie of all-time, Patrick Roy ($59.2 million). Bouwmeester, while a very good defenceman with two Olympic gold titles for Canada, has made more than Chris Chelios, which doesn’t seem right, even with the different times and salaries.

You might scratch your head at some of this year’s top wage-earners, too. All of them are in the top 50 come payday, twice a month:

1. Eric Staal, Carolina, $9.25 million (11th overall)

2. Dion Phaneuf, Toronto, $8 million (15th)

3. Dustin Brown, Los Angeles, $7.25 million (25th)

4. Dan Girardi, New York Rangers, $7 million (27th)

4. Derick Brassard, Rangers, $7 million (27th)

The NHL’s chock-full of great centres and right-wingers, but not so many left-wingers. Here’s the five best all-time, stats aside:

1. The Golden Jet, Bobby Hull

2. Alex Ovechkin

3. The Big M, Frank Mahovlich

4. Terrible Ted Lindsay

5. Luc Robitaille

The best defencemen in history not named Orr, Bourque, Harvey or Lidstrom, who won the Norris Trophy 27 of the 60 times it was handed out (Orr won eight, Harvey and Lidstrom seven each, Bourque five):

1. Dennis Potvin (three Norris, two runner-up)

2. Chris Chelios (three Norris, two seconds)

3. Paul Coffey (three Norris, two seconds)

4. Brad Park (six runner-up, four times to Orr)

5. Pierre Pilote (three Norris, three runner-up)

6. Larry Robinson (two Norris, one second)

7. Bill Gadsby (three seconds)

Top 6 players in next June’s draft and who takes them:

1. Connor McDavid (Erie Otters, C, Buffalo Sabres)

2. Jack Eichel (Boston University, C, Calgary Flames)

3. Noah Hanifin (Boston College, D, Carolina Hurricanes)

4. Dylan Strome (Erie Otters, C, Winnipeg Jets)

5. Pavel Zacha (Sarnia Sting, C, Nashville Predators)

6. Oliver Kylington (Farjestads, Sweden, D, Florida Panthers)

The all-time best No. 21 overall picks in the NHL draft:

1. Kevin Lowe, 1979, Edmonton Oilers

2. Saku Koivu, 1993, Montreal Canadiens

3. Tuukka Rask, 2005, Toronto Maple Leafs

4. Dennis Maruk, 1975, California Golden Seals

5. Bryan Smolinski, 1990, Boston Bruins

6. Joel Quenneville, 1978, Toronto Maple Leafs

All-time “what were we thinking” No. 21 picks in NHL draft:

1. Libor Polasek, 1992, Vancouver Canucks

2. Kim Issel, 1986, Edmonton Oilers

3. Peter Soberlak, 1987, Edmonton Oilers

4. Bobby Sanguinetti, 2006, New York Rangers

5. Anton Gustafsson, 2008, Washington Capitals

6. Steve Bancroft, 1989, Toronto Maple Leafs

The zebras are an anonymous lot (no names on the jerseys, which is ridiculous), but it should be noted that a dozen are at least 50 years old in a very young man’s game trying to keep up to Nathan MacKinnon:

1. Paul Devorski, referee, 56, No. 10

2. Dennis Larue, referee, 55, No. 14

3. Brad Watson, referee, 53, No. 23

4. Andy McElman, linesman, 53, No. 90

5. Mike Cvik, linesman, 52, No. 88

6. Brad Lazarowich, linesman, 52, No. 86

7. Pierre Champoux, linesman, 51, No. 67

8. Jean Morin, linesman, 51, No. 97

9. Dan O’Halloran, referee, 50, No. 13

10. Lonnie Cameron, linesman, 50, No. 74

11. Rob Martell, referee, 50, No. 26

12. Shane Heyer, linesman 50, No. 55

Cvik is the same height as Zdeno Chara, six-foot-nine. He’s also done the most games (1,755) of the current crop. Gretzky was still with the Oilers when he did his first game in October 1987.

If you lined these guys up for a race, watch the exhaust:

1. Nathan MacKinnon, Colorado

2. Andrew Cogliano, Anaheim

3. Taylor Hall, Edmonton

4. Darren Helm, Detroit

5. Erik Haula, Minnesota

These guys have played more than 1,200 games and never won any individual awards, but were certainly good soldiers:

1. James Patrick, 1,280 games, four teams

2. Martin Gelinas, 1,273 games, seven teams

3. Radek Dvorak, 1,260 games, eight teams

4. Brian Rolston, 1,256 games, five teams

5. Sean O’Donnell, 1,226 games, eight teams

These guys who hit the net the most, bearing in mind they didn’t keep stats in the 1950s, ’60s or early ’70s, so Phil Esposito, Bobby Hull, Gordie Howe and The Rocket don’t count:

1. Ray Bourque, 6,206 shots

2. Marcel Dionne 5,366

3. Al MacInnis 5,157

4. Jaromir Jagr 5,112

5. Mike Gartner 5,090

6. Wayne Gretzky 5,089

No Brett Hull, surprisingly. He’s at 4,876.

The analytics folks love Corsi and debunk plus/minus stats, but these plus/minus stats are still eye-popping:

1. Bobby Orr, plus 597, 657 games

2. Ray Bourque, plus 528, 1,612 games

3. Wayne Gretzky, plus 518, 1,487 games

4. Bobby Clarke, plus 506, 1,144 games

5. Denis Potvin, plus 460, 1,060 games

6. Guy Lafleur, plus 453, 1,126 games

7. Bryan Trottier, plus 452, 1,229 games

8. Nicklas Lidstrom, plus 450, 1,564 games

These guys played at least 1,000 games and were good to very good NHLers, but solidly minus players. Some surprises here:

1. Ivan Boldirev, minus-190

2. Kirk Muller, minus-146

3. Wilf Paiement, minus-140

4. Vincent Lecavalier, minus-133

5. Garry Unger, minus-131

Dusting off hockey’s best Dustins:

1. Dustin Brown

2. Dustin Byfuglien

3. Dustin Penner

4. Dustin Tokarski

5. Dustin Boyd

6. Dustin Kohn

Brown’s got the captain’s C in L.A., Byfuglien is the fastest-moving 260-pounder in the game, Penner is waiting by the phone for a contract from somebody, Tokarski is still breathing the rarefied air of being a playoff star for a time last spring, Boyd is playing for Astana Barys in the Kontinental Hockey League and Kohn, married to former Oilers vice-president of communications Steve Hogle’s daughter, Kirsten, is playing in Sheffield, England.

In honour of the 141-pound Vladimir Tkachev (about what one of Byfuglien’s legs weighs), here are the NHL’s smallest fish, bearing in mind the Toledos may lie. None of these guys will ever see Jenny Craig:

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From bags of bones to bags of cash: Lists of NHL’s biggest wage-earners to lightest players

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